Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword: Are Americans Human? Reflections on the Future of Progressive Politics in the United States
- 1 Paradoxes and Possibilities: Domestic Human Rights Policy in Context
- SECTION I STRUCTURING DEBATES, INSTITUTIONALIZING RIGHTS
- SECTION II CHALLENGING PUBLIC/PRIVATE DIVIDES
- SECTION III FROM THE MARGINS TO THE CENTER: MAKING HARMS VISIBLE THROUGH HUMAN RIGHTS FRAMING
- 10 The Law and Politics of U.S. Participation in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- 11 The Anomaly of Citizenship for Indigenous Rights
- 12 Human Rights Violations as Obstacles to Escaping Poverty: The Case of Lone-Mother-Headed Families
- 13 The Human Rights of Children in Conflict with the Law: Lessons for the U.S. Human Rights Movement
- 14 LGBT Rights as Human Rights in the United States: Opportunities Lost
- 15 No Shelter: Disaster Politics in Louisiana and the Struggle for Human Rights
- APPENDIX 1 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- APPENDIX 2 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
- APPENDIX 3 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
- Index
- References
14 - LGBT Rights as Human Rights in the United States: Opportunities Lost
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
By
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword: Are Americans Human? Reflections on the Future of Progressive Politics in the United States
- 1 Paradoxes and Possibilities: Domestic Human Rights Policy in Context
- SECTION I STRUCTURING DEBATES, INSTITUTIONALIZING RIGHTS
- SECTION II CHALLENGING PUBLIC/PRIVATE DIVIDES
- SECTION III FROM THE MARGINS TO THE CENTER: MAKING HARMS VISIBLE THROUGH HUMAN RIGHTS FRAMING
- 10 The Law and Politics of U.S. Participation in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- 11 The Anomaly of Citizenship for Indigenous Rights
- 12 Human Rights Violations as Obstacles to Escaping Poverty: The Case of Lone-Mother-Headed Families
- 13 The Human Rights of Children in Conflict with the Law: Lessons for the U.S. Human Rights Movement
- 14 LGBT Rights as Human Rights in the United States: Opportunities Lost
- 15 No Shelter: Disaster Politics in Louisiana and the Struggle for Human Rights
- APPENDIX 1 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- APPENDIX 2 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
- APPENDIX 3 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
- Index
- References
Summary
One night, my family was eating dinner and talking about the new principal at my children's school. My then-nine-year-old daughter had her own concerns. “Do you think he knows we're lesbians?” Lynne wondered. “Oh honey, YOU and Daniel are not lesbians, WE are,” I said, pointing to my partner and myself. The conversation took a strange turn as I fumbled, “Well, you could be a lesbian, there is nothing…errr…wrong with that.” “And so what about me?” five-year-old Daniel chimed in. I couldn't control a chuckle as Lynne admonished him, “Boys can't be lesbians!” “Oh, I remembered that,” Dan responded, with a disappointed tone in his voice, “I just forgot why.”
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) people have quietly realized some success in arguing their claims in human rights terms in U.S. courts. Shunning the media, LGBT lawyers fear the public backlash that might occur should the extent of their victories become a matter for broad public comment. Yet even with the voluntary, self-imposed restrictions and the unevenness of advocacy victories, it is hard to deny that LGBT rights have come a long way in the U.S. legal system. But this is only a recent phenomenon; for three decades the movement for LGBT concerns was grounded less in human rights terms (i.e., the belief that all human beings have equal moral worth) and more in terms of participation through liberation rhetoric, displays of self-discovery, self-help strategies against two main threats (i.e., disease and public violence), and political campaigns.
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- Information
- Human Rights in the United StatesBeyond Exceptionalism, pp. 274 - 290Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011
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